I bought a new digital camera a few months ago and just starting to get use to it and its abilities. Its a Sony Cybershot DSC-H7 8.1 mega pixel. I have taken some nice shots with it and some bads ones as well. Doing alot of experimenting with it to get good pics.
Does anyone else have this type of camera and would be able to give me some of their setting they use to try to get a better pictures.
Here are a couple I took with it just to see what it can do
After years of sub standard cameras, last Christmas, my wife got me a Cannon Rebel XTI camera. It is totally awesome. i’ve been practicing a bit with it and the pictures are coming out pretty good. Here’s pictures I took in a dark room using a very slow (30 sec.) shutter speed in my El Paso yard. The only lighting was from the 1.5v street light bulbs throughout the layout and the camera is equipped with a filter lens cover…chuck
We have an older 5 MP Cybershot camera. I really like the optics and the convenient size. I usually only use the 1 MP setting, because that’s good enough for most purposes, and doesn’t fill up the memory as quickly as running at 5.
There are 2 things I don’t like about this camera. It doesn’t have a tripod mount, and I can’t really control either shutter speed or aperture. It does a pretty good job of controlling for lighting source, and the auto-focus works well.
I leave the “macro-focus” on all the time. That’s the icon of the tulip on this camera. For normal focus, it doesn’t seem to make a difference, but for closeup work it’s really important.
I try to never use the flash. It just doesn’t look right at all for closeup work. Instead, I turn up the room lights, and try to brace the camera against something. Then, I use the “delay” feature so the camera doesn’t get jiggled when I push the shutter button.
I have to brighten the pictures digitally a lot. That’s one of those things where you’ll just have to play with your editing program to get it right. I usually try to adjust both brightness and contrast by the same amount to keep the picture “balanced.”
Last, remember that the lens is in the upper left corner, if your camera is like mine. That’s a bad place to put your thumb when taking pictures.
I find that no matter what I am using, from my DSLR ot my 5 mp Fuji, the photos tend to be most limited by the guy behind the viewfinder.
If you want extreme closeup photos like originally posted, then you are doing fine. They do have limted use though, unless you are illustrating the fine details on a model.
Check out my model railroad photography site in my signature, lots of pointers in it.
I’ve had an earlier-model Canon Digital Rebel since April 2004, and it seems to give me decent pics - as long as I use it in ‘manual’ mode without letting it do my thinking for me!
I go for the narrowest aperture setting (i.e., the largest f-stop number) possible, then use portable floodlights if necessary to provide adequate lighting. Sometimes I have to override the camera’s default shutter speeds. Then I put the shutter on time-delay, press the button and then keep my hands off the camera until the shutter has opened and closed. This usually gives me the best results.
Here is one of my favorites from this camera:
[Unfortunately this picture also shows the horizontal creases in the blue Dow Board that serves as my “sky” background - wish i could’ve blurred those out!]
misterbeasley, You might have to upgrade your camera My new cybershot has both of those items that your missing. But I do thank you for the hints.
Bob thank for the website for the photo information.
Ken what does the arpeture do? I have a setting that will self adjust to the light that surrounds me. Would that be the samething or should i be looking for something different.
The smaller the aperture (large F stop) the greater the depth of field. This means that more stuff is in focus. To get a proper exposure that means film speeds need to be higher and/or shutter speeds need to be slower. The slower the shutter speed the greater chance for vibrations to blur the picture so usually a tripod is needed. I also use a shutter release so my pressing the button doesn’t vibrate the camera.
Check to see if the camera has a setting abbreviated AV.
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I switched to a Canon Rebel about three years ago. It is good enough for hobby work, not quite good enough for serious railfanning. When 12 megapixels become reasonablely priced I’ll upgrade again. Then I’ll wait for the 36 megapixels (Kodachrome 64 equivalent) get one and be photographically satisfied.
I use a Kodak 5.1 megapixel. Does pretty good. My problem is lighting. What do you guys use for your light. I use a flood lamp with 2 500 watt bulbs, 2 flood lamps. I even brighter up my picture, but some people pictures are so clear and bright. I hope this isn’t off topic, but it might help your camera take better looking shots.
Sledgehammer-Heck with the camera…I want the printer that did those decals your showing!
Has anyone seen that GE is now making cameras? A seperate division called General Imaging.
http://www.general-imaging.com/us/
I was reading some reveiws on them. I haven’t seen a bad reveiw yet.
If using fstops and shutter speeds leave you a little baffled, if you have trouble understanding depth of field and iso speed, then this little online ditty will help. You can change setting on the virtual camera and see instantly the effect.
I wish this had been around when I was learning all this stuff.
http://dryreading.com/camera/index.html
JaRRell
I use a Nikon D50 DSLR or a Nikon N80 Film SLR camera. The D50 is 6.1 Mpix and depending on my choice of lens I can get good macro shots or full layout shots using my wide angle lens. I also have a couple of point and shoot type cameras that do what I need them to do (even underwater) If you are looking to produce prints 8x10 or less than you can get film quallity shots using 5Mpix. Anything over 5Mpix will allow you larger prints. For web display anything over 3.2 should be fine.
CSX, I hope you dont mind but I removed your lines for you and added a little more blue to your sky. It is not a perfect edit but a quicky based on your comments about the shot. If you want I can edit it again for a better overall result.
I have a Nikon 5400 with a fixed zoom lens. Does okay at a distance (see here), but not close up like your Sony Cybershot DSC-H7. Think I need to look into a new camera
I don’t like to toot my own horn, but I am a very good MRR photographer. That being said, I need a new camera. I’m saving up for a 40D, and my little fuji 5MP died, so at the moment I’m stuck with my K-1000 just like the old times. With a blue filter to offset the halogen track lights, I somehow get a better shot that when I’m shooting in real life, though when the slides are scanned I usually lose some colour or contrast.
All my shots feel kind of airy, but for MRR, I like it.
I have a bottom of the barrel Olympus 5mp digital camera. There are hardly any manual settings. I didn’t expect much. I had some points to use up from a credit card. It has a macro setting and I can shut off the flash, that’s it. Apparently it has f-stop ranging from 3.0 to 5.0. It takes really nice outdoor pictures. I think the issues I have inside have more to do with poor lighting than the camera. My photography skills are severely lacking as well!
only one I ever had Pentex 3.2
Bruce, what did you use for your GMR article a year or two ago? Your layout looked great. (Spent some years growing up in the SF Valley - you nailed the backdrop!!!)
I recently purchased a Canon G7 10Mp camera that does it all. The only reason I bought it was because it is better than JKTrains camera. (Although he still takes better pictures than me[:)])
A Good camera does not a great picture take as Yoda would say. You need both. A Good operator and a Good camera. Another year or so behind the lens and I think I’ll have it.
Currently using a Canon Powershot S40 (4.0mp), but I’ve got my eye on a dSLR (10.0 mp) and will probably have it within a week or two. I want more control of the camera functions.
Still, even at 4.0 megapixel it can produce a nice pic.
JK, what brand/model are you looking at? Have you seen the new Canon G9’s? 3" LCD!!! I got my G7 from Ebay for only 300 bucks! I’ve always liked Canon’s Digic processor.